History tv on cspan 3. We talk about fidel and the revolution that changed world history. Him scusses Fidel Castros begins and the Important Role of young people. This hosted the event. Australian born perpetual explorer travel writer books hor of six the grand apoleons, tour, journey through the europe al underbelly of fidel andecently che, the revolution that changed history. He College Student regularly disappeared for hikes through the outback and traveled rural india where he had. Career makes ed in manhattan he it a point to continue exploring beijing and other place. Have been stories published in magazines like new and translated into a dozen languages. Having been selected several times for the best American Travel writer series. He is a regular guest on History Channel where he is spoken about everything from the crusaders. It is available for sale after the program. Welcoming me in tony. Hello, everybody. Such you for coming out on a beautiful spring night. Celebrate the secrets of the cuban revolution. From my be wondering many wonder why im writing about cuba. In argentina in buenos aires and was all around if you live innd latin mark everyone is there thinking about cuba and what happened and what is going to happen in cuba. That sense i felt like i had 1996, which did in was just after the soviet union had collapsed. It was kind of appear economic disaster. Nomic i got there from new york because you couldnt fly. I went to nassau. All i knew is i had to take a 000 in cash and give it to guy at the airport and i would recognize him by his hat. There and went into this d disused terminal with wires and lionel appeared and gave him the money and he thing and dwritten pointed out a prop plane and to six people squeezed on cuba. Plane and landed in it was an exciting experience. Went was in the obama years. Flew on a private jet from havana. O champagne and beautiful american cars picked up. Taken to a luxury hotel with a roof top pool and had wifi. Was like science fiction. Trip i asked friend a cuba specialist i wanted to find about the revolution and happened. She said it does not exist. You should write it. Yes, that seems wildly difficult and extremely unlikely. This trip the obama era i understand there was including the ba hideouts in the mountains where idel used to lurk and other extraordinary places. So i proposed to the smithsonian follow the trail and history of the revolution, which is he story how the story came up. Words of ut 3,000 going to these places and finding the things that were on. G out to have will that give you an idea of classic images. That, i realized there is much more to be learned and more discovered. That was just the tip of the iceberg. About it and book i started. Get into was trying to it that inspired me with the dea that they discovered how popular the revolution was amongst americans in those days 1959 which seemed extraordinary given what had happened since. How difficult it was to find out inut the revolution here and cuba it is difficult. So i tried to investigate here image that most intrigued me s just after the dictator fled ed sullivan flew to cuba to about ew fidel as he was to come into havana and you can and he was utube like and ed was star struck over fidel l comparing him to george a fine youngd said group of revolutionary youngste youngsters. It was a twilight zone. E said what do you think of american and fidel said a very positive feeling. You to like cuba and we like you. Was the other way around. Lovefest. This is the point where i started the book and go back to find out how it unfolded. Incredible by unlikely that this bunch of oung doctors in their 20 youngsters afternoon land on the down of cube and decimated to 12 people how they ended up 40,000 professional soles in just over two years. Rs in over two the thing that i like about the that it is broken up into specific little chapters in a way. The uld have put this in print out but there are five arts to the story so you will know as we go along. Ae first part is a prelude in way here is the young fidel playing basketball and he was a athletic character and as his student as well nickname was the crazy one of he he would do things like would bet his friends that he into at drive it bicycle wall at full tilt and they said we will bet you that. Down a hill smacked into a wall and he was out three days. That was just to prove the point. That gives insight into the character. Loved sports. In basketball and baseball were of the american sports. You can visit his family house and e eastern side of cuba it is a place we entered, the mance is is family still there. He was from quite a rich family up with this sense of injustice. Didnt have shoes and he had shoes and he realized dad was a land holder was he ng the workers badly and would get in arguments and got in a strike which didnt endear to his dad. If you go to this place you can family bedroom and he and raul shared the bedroom and baseball outfits there. He rtunately the story that was offered a contract with is ican official baseball untrue. He had a great pitching arm but a scholarship et to miami or to indianapolis. Any way, fidel, it extraordinary haracter, one of the more extraordinary characters of the 20th century, the thing that i show is he was this conservative went havana used studying law and became radicalized. Brewing e these things ncluding in 1953 a coup from batista. Fidel was running for politics senator. He the coup not occurred he robably would have won and maybe eight years later run for the presidency himself. Instead, batista takes over and out the process. And there were american mobsters to run the casinos and milking way and in a blatant extremely violent. Secret police were beating up opponents. Ng it was a thuggish environment. Fidel came to the conclusion as do others that this american dictator could not be defeated by people. Something ad to do extreme. So they decided to start an insurrection. Before the actual revolution begins sort of the first voluntarily. East the major city is santiago very beautiful place has a barracks there. E and another 100 of his riends, students, taught themselves how to shoot gunsh, s and made ell themselves uniforms to look chevrolets led into and buick apsd trundled off to place that had maybe 500 soldiers in it and they if they surprised them while they were asleep because carnival t night of they thought they would be so hung over they wouldnt fight. The case. Ot they completely blew it. Ran accidentally nearly over a couple of patrolmen and a of fight start and many them were killed and some were captured and tore cleared to tortured. So it was kind of a disaster, battle of little big horn in the United States elebrated in its own awards way. So you can see the bullet holes of a reserved as part shrine. Idel was captured and a bunch f them and sent to Devils Island of cuba. Ff the coast and all thrown into this model prison which is modeled on one in chicago. Is an example of where a guard can be in the middle and in the whole place. Sinister and very reason but for whatever the Political Prisoners were put in one room and they got each other gave classes on revolutionary theory isntotted what to do and messages to people outside and fidel even managed to in a great publishing story he wrote a book pamphlet on e or a his defense speech. Pieces of little paper and smuggled out piece by havana. Supporters in lemon juiceitten in so the guards never asked why passion for citrus. Believe pressure mounted to fiddle and the friends and there were some youngsters they flee nknown so to mexico city and organize and invade cuba. They are complete amateurs. The story is out ph. D. Grads nch of rom princeton went to the mountains to overthrow the government. They had to teach themselves how how to navigate, how to survive in the mountains. Rocks in theirut back packs and go hiking up and down the streets of mexico city, the mountains. They found a veteran of spanish teach them to shoot and they tried to raise money nd they were often caught, secret police were after them in mocks city. Arrested. Ge then all by this stage they have been a medic, a young chap forctor and he signed on to the, digs. He was arrest expedition. None s the first photograph of che and fidel in a mexico city prison. Tighten iing on them going as cided to get fast as they could. His 19 second part of the this is the second part with the plan of the invasion. Decided to buy a boat from doctor in mexico city called the grandma and they organized the locals, local supporters. This is the Frank Sinatra type for the r boy revolution and he organized in antiago knowing there were going to river some time at the end of november. Fidel would send a telegram that said the book that you ordered of print. That was the code they were city. To leave mexico it was going to take five days boat y all piled into the minuminnow e the s. S. Waterlogged. Ky and 120 people wanted to get on and 82 and they set off at ight in a storm ignoring it is one of worse storm warnings in months. S soon as they got in the harbor it started to rock and sick. Ot sea he forgot to pack the sea sickness tablets and with the other on of raul and one they got sea sick and it was a disaster. Ar water was coming in the boat and hey realized it was going to flood so they grabbed whatever they could and started throwing lighten it oard to until somebody realized the tap toilet. N the that set the tone for the early revolution. They were heading to this ama which i was line able to travel it has some of the worse roads in cuba which is saying something but it was remoat and isolated and fidel and isolated and decided to do that so they could and into the mountains probably the poorest and most caribbean. Rt of the it turns out they are two days the ground people gave up and then they come along and crashland and they are long coast and somebody in the we need s and says sandbags and they all get in and them go across and realize to their horror that of have not landed on one beautiful beaches but in a swamp most sinister swamps in east. The spot u can visit they have done this beautiful walkway to see where they crashlanded. Climb over the vines and dropped their stuff and lost their shoes and it was a complete fiasco. Dehydrated so they meet a farmer and he wanders out bushes and fidel says ave no fear we have come to save the cuban people. The guy apparently russell resisted urge laughing. O burst out but he is helpful and he catch get more food. Then there is shooting and they spotted hey have been by the coast guard and soon the air force is coming. Decided to slip off toward the 30 mile walk to the mountains. Third day ly on the they are surrounded and ambushed. Them ricanamerican found and the army find them and massacre and 20 killed and the rest captured. Veryone else scatters in wild directions. He is dying and he a tree and inst remembers his favorite jack london story about a guy who is die in the wilderness of alaska until somebody grabs and says come on, we have to et out of here and get in the bushes. So there were scattered everyone. Himself in a sugar cane field. Dusk he notices two riends and the army are going back and for the. They hang out there five days away. E ample to go ample to go away. Hey are drinking dew and gnawing on sugar kane to keep themselves sustained. Ere of the time fidel is rocking back apnd forth saying victory will be ours. The other two are saying fidel lost it. Hes gone mad. Turns out they get it together and walk basically like walking a few hours a day and mostly at night and get in the eeting point up mountains. Ery beautiful area and isolated. Others manage to survivor and i mean raul his brother made it out with a couple of people. Up there. Che is there. He was from argentina which is name, it is like hey, che, like pal or australian it would be like mate. Well. Ds up there as believe about 20 of them gather nd they are camping out in a coffee field and recovering from the wounds. Any others were caught and butchered by the army, machine gunned. Miraculous thing. Those that survived became the revolution. He he one that would be running the africanamericrmy he was be with shovels. The lead guys, these few people, later someone would write a book and it was 2 people more like 20 but they liked the know as it con the religious connotation of 12. Trying to survivor and only way to survive is of sanchez efforts whose daughter lived below and organizer of the revolution. Ou go to havana archives you can find her accounts. Meticulous and she boots and food and would organize mule trains to take them stuff. The coming months it would turn out if not for her the revolution would have been snuffed out. The boys were full of enthusiasm that they couldnt organize their way out of a paper bag. Just very young and disorganized and couldnt even guns. Their they were going off. Ut she was able to roaring reinforcements reorganize einforcements and kept the revolution going in these early months. Bautista had seventh out word that if i fidel and and his friends were dead. Word went back to fidel wanted to get an interview and decided to get a New York Times, a stringer in havana. She didnt want to go up there she contacted another guy Herbert Matthews a great latin and knew f his day cuba and flew down and we said send somebody. He looked a the him and frail late 50s he said we will send somebody. Myself. Said im going the other guy could not believe him but matthews did decide to do it. His wife got there the driven by acts out to aoeast to plantation owners. He hikes up into the mountains and fidel meets him. Strort thing. One extraordinary thing. The without this revolution would have expired. Fidel meets him. Got 20 guys and they are ragged. Raul get is brother back and forth and change outfits so he looks like he has more than he does. Also had to walk sideways so they wouldnt see the backs torn on. Irts were it was a ragtag army. Matthew he has his cells all over the mountains, soldiers which prints. S buys and he had this extraordinary thing is on f i disrespectful the front page of new york report and glowing romantic revolution. The heroic ut resistance of a youth rebellion sinister dictator a robin hood sort of thing and image that right,many ways, it is that these guys didnt have any political agenda other than getting rid of baptista. That was ago they could all get behind. Came much later. Che was kind of a communist and , but fidelll basically wanted power. Somebody said they tried to make fidel a communist and fidel laughed and said, if i was a communist i would be stalin. On the same day Herbert Matthews meets him, celia is the one in the middle, and the other one is haley santamaria, Celia Sanchez hikes in to meet fidel for the first time. It is this extraordinary moment. Here he is, showing off his favorite rifle. She loves shooting, loves fishing, the great outdoors, she was a political devotee, totally devoted to the revolution, and it begins one of the great romances of the revolution. A lot has been written about the relationship between che and fidel, which was extraordinary, but this union between celia and amazinge has all these ideas that he spouts them out, she puts them into action, sort of translates them into something practical and can actually happen. Fidel is on the front page of the New York Times as the face of the cuban resistance, so its an extraordinary thing. That inspires people. Cbs news decides to go there as well and we have a guy named Robert Taylor who interviews fidel is a tv natural and knows how to stage things as well. He says we will do it on top of the highest mountain in cuba, spectacular view, unfolding coastline, and there is a bust of the independence hero jose m arti, and they sing these rousing songs and it is broadcast to 50 Million Viewers across the United States suddenly the United States. Suddenly fidel is a huge presence, despite the fact he has only a handful of followers. Today you can go up the sierra and it is still an extremely poor place. The other reason they were able to survive is that the local farmers decided to help them out. They long felt isolated and removed from the rest of the country. They had been left out of cuba, exiles within their own land, so they give them food, support, they carried messages, they told fidel when the army was coming in. So in this early, nomadic phase, campesino,s amazing secondary army helping them out. And they are wandering around in the mountains for months, changing camps every night, and exhausting time for the revolution. One thing i found in the havana archives, one of my favorite discoveries, all the leaders were writing diaries, but the cuban platoon leader wrote a diary that was never published. He was sort of a romantic. He had a girlfriend who lived in mexico, he didnt like hardship, he didnt like being rained on, trudging around, didnt like blisters, but he was devoted to the revolution. He was also very lonely. He missed his girlfriend. He writes all this down in the diary. He gives this marvelous accounts where he falls in love with every woman he meets in the mountains, shop girls, farmers ,aughters, guerrilla volunteers writes these lovely poems about it. Liaisonup in a romantic at dallys so long that his platoon left. But it ends when the girl opens a locket around his neck and sees the photograph of his girlfriend in mexico, unfortunately. In his diary, it is all for the best, although one doesnt quite believe him. He was a very lovelorn character. Just waiting for some water. There it is. Ok. He has extraordinary insights into this amateurish, doityourself revolution. One of the other great things i found out was that after Herbert Matthews story was published in New York Times a lot of americans were inspired to join the revolution. Three teenagers from guantanamo theirsappeared from families, ran away and joined fidel. And fidel and frank paiz decide it is a good idea, a good pr thing, so they let the three American Kids join. Then they write an open letter to the u. S. Government saying that they love the revolution, that it is like the Founding Fathers all over again, and it is published in the New York Times. And it is calling for americans to stop supplying batista the dictator with arms. Planes are refueling and guantanamo bay, americans are training the secret police, it was not an ideal situation. So the three kids are there, but fidel eventually decides one of them couldnt hack the mountain it isbut fidel decides too dang